Film

The Muppets Go to the Movies

A 1981 TV special where Lily Tomlin and Dudley Moore celebrate cinema with the Muppets through sketches and musical numbers. It's a love letter to old Hollywood wrapped in Jim Henson's anarchic charm—chaotic, affectionate, and genuinely funny in that '70s variety-show way. For anyone who loves the Muppets or wants to see how they did comedy before streaming.

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The Great Muppet Caper1981

The spiritual partner to this special: a full Muppet movie with a real plot, genuine Hollywood glamour, and musical numbers that still delight. The Muppets prove they can carry a feature.

But Some of the humor feels dated, and if you're not charmed by felt and one-liners delivered by puppets, this won't convert you.

The Great Muppet Caper poster

The Muppet Movie1979

The Muppets' first feature, where they cross America seeking Hollywood. It's warm, surprisingly clever, and full of celebrity cameos. A genuine masterpiece of practical puppet comedy.

But Nearly two hours; younger viewers might find the road-trip pacing slow, and the sweetness can feel saccharine if you're in a cynical mood.

The Muppet Movie poster

Fraggle Rock1983

Jim Henson's live-action puppet series with the same spirit of invention and anarchic humor. Monster suits, weird worlds, and jokes for adults hidden in family programming. Genuinely great television.

But The production values are clearly low by today's standards, and it takes a few episodes to establish its rhythm.

Fraggle Rock poster

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Singin' in the Rain1952

Both are tributes to cinema that ARE cinema: making art about the joy of making art. The Muppets learned from this kind of self-aware Hollywood love letter.

This special *about* movies is clearly in love with Hollywood's golden age, and this is the movie they're actually referencing in spirit: joyful, technically perfect, about performance itself. The ancestor of what the Muppets are doing.

But It's a 1952 MGM musical from before color photography was standard, and if you're not interested in classic film or dance numbers, watching Gene Kelly skip around will feel quaint.

Singin' in the Rain poster
More like this (6)

Saturday Night Live1975

The same DNA: sketch comedy, celebrity hosts, musical guests, and that particular 1970s energy where anything could happen and usually did. Quick, loose, and often brilliant.

But Wildly uneven; you're watching live TV from forty years ago, and some sketches haven't aged well. Also nothing to do with Muppets, which some viewers want.

Saturday Night Live poster

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In1967

The variety show that broke all the rules. Fast-cut, irreverent, packed with jokes and musical numbers. If you love the anarchic energy of the Muppets' world, this is where that style comes from.

But The jokes can feel daffy in a way that wears thin over an hour, and the 1960s aesthetic is very much of its moment.

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In poster

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour1968

Live-action characters in animal suits doing sketches and musical numbers. It predates and parallels the Muppets' approach—same energy, different execution. Wonderfully weird for kids and nostalgic adults.

But The acting is earnest rather than clever, and the jokes don't always land. A curiosity piece rather than a finished thing.

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour poster

Sesame Street1970

Jim Henson's other great creation. Yes, it's for kids, but the writing is smart, the characters have genuine personality, and the music is often excellent. Foundation of everything the Muppets would become.

But It's explicitly educational television, and some viewers find the earnestness beside the point. Also genuinely for small children in many episodes.

Sesame Street poster

The Carol Burnett Show1967

Sketch comedy, musical numbers, heart, and genuine invention. Carol Burnett built something that influenced everything that came after. A masterclass in how to sustain a variety show.

But Over 40 episodes and 11 seasons; impossible to know where to start, and some sketches rely on 1970s references that have vanished.

The Carol Burnett Show poster

Pinocchio1940

Both are celebrations of puppet/character performance as an art form. Both ask: what can we do with fabric and artifice that feels more true than reality?

Disney's puppet-cinema dream, made decades before the Muppets. If you want to understand why puppets performing stories matter—the technical marvel, the real magic of it—this is cinema's answer. A genuine masterpiece.

But It's slow by modern standards, sometimes genuinely frightening, and if you're not moved by animation or old Hollywood technique, it will feel like watching a technical exercise.

Pinocchio poster

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